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Well, I gotta write SOMETHING!

FedoraDave

I can't get a handle on the approach to this chapter book I want to write. It has no real shape or direction, and it needs more time to percolate and work itself out so I don't begin it and then abandon it. I think I need to get back to basics and decide just what manner of story I'm telling here. Then the other pieces might begin to fall into place.

But in the meantime, I'm developing a series of shorts, which takes off from the story I've got in submission limbo at the moment. I know the voice I need to use (Mrs. Hat says it's my genuine writer's voice), and the approach I need to take. So I'm compiling ideas for stories.

I can see it being its own anthology; a collection of related stories with common elements and characters, but all of them written by me. Could be an interesting hook; who knows?

mate556

Being the spooky season and all. Have you ever written any horror or spooky style stories or have ever had the desire to? Books of Blood by Clive Barker was always a favorite of mine.

FedoraDave

mate556
I do like those kinds of stories, but I don't think I'd do well attempting to write them. Same with mysteries and procedurals. It takes a certain kind of thinking to put those things together, and I don't have it.

If I can, I like to inject some humor into my stories, and these ones I'm thinking about would allow me to do that. So I can construct an interesting story that's amusing as well as being engaging. The main thing is, they would be more likely to flow naturally so the reader wouldn't feel like he's reading something that someone worked on. Finding the right voice is essential for a writer.

FedoraDave

I'm going to begin outlining one of these stories today. Actually, I began outlining it while I was on the treadmill at the gym this morning. I just need to put what I conjured up down in word form and go from there.

But it's already shaping up.

FedoraDave

I got some more writing done this morning.

The challenge with this one is that it's narrated in first person, and since the narrator was used in another story I wrote, I need to be consistent with his voice throughout all the stories I write with him as the narrator. What I wrote yesterday didn't feel completely right, and that bothered me. I'm glad I caught it early, though.

What I did right before I went to bed last night was re-read the opening few paragraphs of the first story, to get a feel for what I was missing. That helped, and today I did some revision on my opening, and wrote a bit more of the story. I just needed to get back in the narrator's groove. Fortunately, this is an easy style for me to slip into.